The Book of the War (novel)
The Book of the War was the book which launched the Faction Paradox series. It was the only book to be precede the initial audio stories. Publisher's summary [[Great Houses|'The Great Houses']] Immovable. Implacable. Unchanging. Old enough to pass themselves off as immortal, arrogant enough to claim ultimate authority over the Spiral Politic. The Enemy Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it. Faction Paradox Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage... assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable. The War A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect." Marking the first five decades of the conflict, THE BOOK OF THE WAR is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recordable time to the fall of humanity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past... Notes * Although purporting to be an encyclopaedia of the first fifty years of the War in Heaven, The Book of the War offers mostly original information rather than summaries of established events. It should be understood as a work of fiction in its own right, somewhere between an anthology and a collaborative novel. * Its narrator is unreliable, at times unaware of details from other sources which might cast a different light on the events related. Information offered as 'fact' in the book should not be uncritically accepted as such. * Lance Parkin submitted an entry for the book which would have told the story of Mr Saldaamir, a character who appeared in several Doctor Who novels written by Parkin. Miles removed this section from the final draft of the book, leaving only an apology sentence in the first pages of the book. References * Anvil Stars * Beshielach * Ghost clusters * Grandfather Halfling * Gravity spider * House Military * Redemption Cult * War King * Yssgaroth * Umbaste * Entarodora * Carmen Yeh * Cwejen * Charles Babbage created the Clockwork Ouroboros. * Father Timon * Unkindnesses Continuity * Although Faction Paradox eventually developed a strong identity of its own apart from its roots in the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures, in this book the roots, narrative background and indeed characters are so close that it reads very much as a guide to the Second War in Heaven (as it would have been if not for the events of The Ancestor Cell. The hunt for Compassion and the Celestis are described in near-identical terms, but with BBC-copyrighted names changed. Thus the Time Lords became the Great Houses, TARDISes become timeships and so forth. Also the War King is strongly implied to be the Master. External links * * [http://web.archive.org/web/20050305212112/www.factionparadox.co.uk/bookroute.htm Reading guide to how to read The Book of the War and which order to read entries] (via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine) Category:Books